Every match will be different. Some students will be self-motivated. Some won't. Sometimes they will have homework, other times they may need to talk about a concern. The following questions can be used to organize any session, any time. 1) What is one good thing that has happened since the last time we met?
This is a good way to start the session on a positive note. It is a question both the volunteer and the student need to answer. It sets the stage for a mentoring relationship to develop because you are sharing things about yourself.
2) What is one negative thing that has happened?
Everyone has a bad day every now and then. This is another form of sharing and building a relationship. A bad day for a volunteer might be something that went wrong on the job. For a student it might be a poor test score, or it might be a problem at home. If a youth is thinking of some of these bad things, it's not likely he/she is going to be focused on learning or tutoring. A volunteer could spend the rest of an entire session just working through this question.
3) What's going on in school?
This question is what makes us an academic tutoring program and what makes a volunteer more like a parent. We recruit business people because they have jobs and can help kids build aspirations by the enthusiasm they show for their own careers. As youth begin to express an interest in being a lawyer, or a web site builder, or any other career, the volunteer needs to lead the youth to information about the academic preparation required.
Thus, as you ask what's going on in school, you need to dig deeper to find out if the student is even attending classes! Or if she is taking the right courses needed to have the career she wants. As report cards become available, the volunteer can see what the student strength's and weaknesses are, and can begin to focus the question on test preparation, study skills, or projects.
4) What's going on in the world? How does that affect you or me? What's going on at Cabrini Connections?
If you get through questions 1, 2 and 3, then question 4 leads you to many other activities that you can do which focus on a primary goal: building communication skills. Do you have a newspaper or current magazine? Do you want to go to the MSN or CNN website? Also, we always have writing activities, research activities, and opportunities on which youth and volunteers can collaborate. If need something in addition or in lieu of schoolwork, you can do activities that make the youth more capable of succeeding in school. Please interact with our space: there are more resources here than you may realize!
